On the cover art she is dressed in slinky white dress with hand caressing cello, on CD she is dressed in emperor's new clothes. Too bad rostropovitch doesn't look good in underwear for the cover photo, but really whyndoes she need to record this. She is good player in orchestral pieces with crisp clear modern tone. But the suites need some more experience, vision of hell/paradise and enormous artistic expression. Here we have signal toothpaste.I am sorry if too tough on her but these pieces are sacred.

Yes, Rony, it is an eternal mystery why most artists insist on over-reaching themselves in public; but I suppose we have't seen/heard the last of it. And it is also sort of funny that you bring to mind the Bach Cello Suite, along with O's clear, modern tone, because I have just been thinking of how exactly this quality would "benefit" this Suite, compared to the usual "digging for passion" in the ff. Another thing I was thinking along with this is that to do these justice there must be enough outright power that it can "appear" as "delicacy" and "restraint"; not so much like a Lamborghini lumbering slowly down a narrow cobblestone lane, but like a Carrera zipping comfortably on some nice Swiss twisties (maybe with the Bach Suite on the stereo...).

Yes My comment was not fair, obviously she didn't suit my mood at thentime and these suites can be very mood driven. Speaking of great afemale artists, I saw sylvie guilhem dance last night to beethoven piano sonate. The movement in dance canenlighten music almost like watching opera as opposed to just listening.Regards

I never hear Ophelie Gaillard but am always am open for new takes on Bach. If you would like to try something different then you might try what I have been listening for the last few months – viola rendition of the suites. Viola is kind of shadowy instrument but I am discovering that for right music, in context of proper listening objectives and in good hands it might be very rewording instrument. So, try to find Lillian Fuchs plays the whole 6 Suites for Cello Solo by viola. This is old recording that very much no comply with what Hi-Fi people consider as “quality” but that is phenomenal play and very slick transition to very different instrument with slightly different expressive characteristics. It took for me a bit time to get accustomed to slightly higher pitch of viola and perceived narrowed dynamic range but I went over it very fast and nowadays feel that dynamic starving is beneficial to the suites as it highlights the structural and chromatic beauty of the work. It is no surprise that Casals after he heard Lillian Fuchs noted “it sounded even better for viola”.

Hi Romy,Yes great minds think alike! I made a note of a viola version of the suites I heard on the radio just a few weeks ago! It was a modern recording by patricia something and the first time I heard them played on viola and loved it, though i was not as taken with the sarrabande part that i heard, prefering that on the cello!

Romy says: It took for me a bit
time to get accustomed to slightly higher pitch of viola and perceived
narrowed dynamic range but I went over it very fast and nowadays feel
that dynamic starving is beneficial to the suites as it highlights the
structural and chromatic beauty of the work.

People are so used to the frequently shifting dynamics of Romantic and 20th century works that they don't realize that such orchestrating is specific to those styles. In music from medieval times up to the 18th century dynamics were either viewed as indoor (soft) and outdoors (loud) or used in a terraced manner. A passage might be played at mezzo piano then mezzo forte or vice versa. Large stretches would be kept at a certain dynamic level. Crescendos and decrescendos were regarded as affectations in playing to be used sparingly if at all. Perhaps it was opera singing that suggested the use of more rapid fluctuations of dynamics to composers. Modern performers are so used to the Romantic manner of dynamics that they tend to apply it to earlier periods of music which didn't use it customarily. It is also true that large dynamic swings are rather disruptive to concentrating on the musical form. The stronger a stimulus the more that attention narrows to just that stimulus and blocks out less intense or subtler events.

Just wanted to add my enthusiasm for Lillian Fuchs' transcription and performance of the Bach Cello Suites! Even via CD, the viola is rendered well enough by my system, and Fuchs' playing, including her tempo, is sublime. The lines are well articulated without being etched, and the play in no way obfuscates the note-to-note relationships and groupings, nor the "counts". I have opinions about vibrato for Bach, but I am not fanatical about it. IMO, it works in this case. And I agree wholeheartedly that Fuch's use of the viola's special pitch and timbre adds another dimension to these seminal Suites.

You only need the first two notes and you know that this is WONDERFUL Bach.

Rony, what is your "bitch" with Ophélies playing? I do not need always a "hysterically" correct reading or the virtuoso showing off everything they can.What I like about her playing is the feeling that she is simply singing a song like a child - very innocent and not solving an equation or carving a statue in marble. Especially the Gavotte (a folk dance originally from France) gets a special character with her reading (and probably heritage). Yes, this is foot tapping music for me - a breath of fresh air, sweet scent of spring. Bravo.Maybe her pulling the tits and ass card bothers you because it makes her seem less serious? It is a strange world that we live in with the Nigel Kennedys......................